Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-10-15
PURE WATER.
APLAN OUTLINED BY WHICH OUR CITIZENS
NAY Be AFFORDED RELIEF.
An Interview with a NsmberO Of the City Water Board
Wherein be Narrares the Experiments
Recently Undertaken and the
Results Achieved.

AuClC was PASOe1AE
history of the city when the outcry against
the water supply was so long and loud, or
when there were so many plans and the
ories, having for their object the removal
of all cause for complaint, sprung upon
the community through the medium
ofthe newspapers as during the past three
or four months. The REGISTER has taken
no part in this clamor and ~hsp-hazzard
discussion, but certain papers and individ-
uals have devoted themselves assiduously
to complaints on the one hand, and a num-
Der of pet ideas in the way of remedies on
the other, while the public has gone on
and drank the beverage served up to them
without any very clear idea of how they
we're 70 be afforded relief, il, indeed, there
was TO be any amelioratioI of their unhap-
py lot. All of the plans proposed for
the purifying of the water involved
the outlay of enormous sums of money, and
- il was well-known that the city could not
raise the cash called for, the future did not
hold out any bright promises OF relief. The
project of removing the pumping station Of
the water works to a point above the Top
mill was an undertaking; that
plan of allowing the engines to remain
where they are, and conducting pure"
water to them by means of a conduit three
miles long, extending up the bed of the
river for that distance, presented mechan-
ical and engineering difficulties which
rendered the matter about out of the ques-
ton, while the plan Of fltering the water
by ofsome Of the patent appliances
in use in both Europe and America, was an
almost equally costly and very uncertain
experiment when it came to passing {, OOO,-
900 gallons a day through the device. A
fourth plan of getting around the contain
nation in the water is more or less familiar
to the readers Of this paper. This method
involved the construction of an i'm
mense sewer from a point some distance
up what is known as "~Jonathan's
Rayine" down to and along the eastern
shore Of the river to point below the lOca-
ton ofthe present pumping station OF the
works. The advocates of this plan a a
theory that the river was much contaml-
mated by matter carried in solution by
water percOlating through the earth from
the graves on Mt. Wood, as well as by the
outpourings of certain sewers emptying
into the river in the northern portion Of
the city, and it WAS argued that if this
nOxious stuff could be carried past the
pumping station before being allowed to
mingle with the water of the river, the
source of much of the contamination would
be cut of, and the water would be found
much better. This plan had one element
in common with all the rest-it was very
costly. And very many who had given
the subject much careful study did not
believe that it would afford relief when
completed. Among those who, while earn
estly desiring to do something to give the
citizens of the town better water, did not
have much faith in any of the ideas above
outlined, were the members of the Water
Board, and this being so, they, as far back
as a year ago, set themselves to work to
study up some method which would be rea-
sonably certain to accomplish the end III
view, and at the same not be so costly as
10 be beyond the reach of the city. The
Board proceeded slowly and carefully in
this matter, and the result is that the
members believe they have hit upon some
thing practicable and comparatively cheap.
Last evening a member of the Board out
lined this plan to the REGISTER, and the
substance of the conversation is herewith
given to our readers.
ITO begin with" said the gentleman,
II want to state that the cry to which
we have been accustomed, that the water
supply of the city Is contaminated by the
drainage of tine upper portion of the town,
is all a humbug. This we have proved by
having various samples of water,
taken from widely different points
in the river, submitted to the eX-
animation of the best analytical chemists
in the country. The reports OF these gen.
tlemen have proven that the water taken
from q point in the river directly above
where the ENDS of the suction pipes OF the
works rest, is precisely the same, as regards
the proportion ofimpurities, ~ water taken
from the river at the Top mill and the
Sisters Islands. There is, as no n will
deny, a good deal of e%xtraneous and I'M
healthy matter carried into the river from
sewers in the upper end of the town, but
we deny that any of this stuff has or can
reach the supply pipes of the works
These pipes are now from seventy to ninety
feet out in the river from extreme low
water mark, at a point where the largest
volume Of water flows, and they are there
fore safe from contamination from this
source. We have closely observed the
currents about and above the water works,
and find that in the heaviest storms, when
the outflow from the sewers and the sur
face drainage above the works is heaviest,
the water is not discolored save for a dis
lance of fifteen or twenty feet from the
shore, while beyond that point there is no
change. If this be so 10 times OF storms,
there can be no question but that the
small amount of sewerage in ordinary
times remains very close to the shore, and
cannot reach the pipes by any possibility.
This was orr theory before we made
the tests of the water. We had SupeTln-
tendent Riddle procure LOT US lOuI samples
of riyer water, one from the river at a point
over the outer ends Of our supply pipes, a
second from the river at the Top mill, a
third from the river at the Sisters Islands,
and the fourth was taken from the crib on
the Island bar. A portion Of each of these
samples of water was placed in the hands
of q well-known and competent
chemist in this city, while the
remainder wAs sent TO an equally
competent chemist at CINCINNATI. The
results arrived at by these gentlemen were
practically identical. The reports showed
that the water taken from the river at the
three points named was equally impure,
while they also agreed that the water taken
from the well on the Island bar was much
better than the other samples. This con-
irmed the Board in the belief that it was
on the right path, and encouraged it to go
forward. 1t showed that for the city to in
cur the enormous expense necessary to
bring water from any point abo=s the Top
mill would result in bringing 20 the pumps
sVartlv tia same uality of water now sun